During the recent joint press conference with Vladimir Putin, Emmanuel Macron said that in case the situation in the East of Ukraine is escalated, the EU may well toughen sanctions against Russia.
As you can see, the new President of the 5th Republic has set direct ties between the anti-Russian sanctions and the situation in Donbass. The most interesting thing is that by saying that, Macron literally put the blame for the war in Donbass on Russia and President Putin. At the end of his speech, President Macron said that he would like to deescalate the Donbass conflict.
The French President also showed his commitment to conducting another Normandy meeting in the near future to discuss the situation in the East of Ukraine as well as the ways to deescalate the situation and put an end to the conflict. In particular, he offered the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring the situation in Donbass to come up with a detailed report on what’s actually going on in there.
Also, Macron explained why he had banned Russian journalists. He assures everyone that he has always been loyal to mass media, however if journalist start distorting the facts, they cannot be called journalists anymore. To be more specific, he accused Russia Today and Sputnik of acting like a means of propaganda instead of being unbiased mass media.
In case you don’t know, during the recent G7 summit in Italy, the participants discussed the possibility of toughening the anti-Russian sanctions in case the things get worse. European leaders seem to be determined to act.
